Texas Drag Performer Accidentally Killed by Cop During Mugging

James Lee Whitehead (aka Niki Hunter) was killed by an officer's bullet on Sunday during an assault and robbery by three men on Ogden Street in San Antonio, walking distance the city's gay club scene on North Main Avenue.

Q San Antonio reports: "Officer William Karman, a one-and-half-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department, responded to the 911 call from witnesses who saw Whitehead being beaten. As the policeman approached the scene, Martinez and Rodriguez jumped into a white SUV and fled. Officer Karman saw Ramon on top of Whitehead, pistol whipping him with a handgun. The officer ordered Ramon to drop the weapon. However, Ramon got up and approached the officer with his gun raised. The officer fired two shots towards Ramon. When those did not stop him, Karman fired three more shots. The second round of shots stopped Ramon but one of Karmen’s five bullets had struck Whitehead in the chest and he died at the Brooke Army Medical Center a few hours later. Ramon was also taken to the hospital where he was charged by proxy with murder and Aggravated Assault on a Public Servant. Police later apprehended and booked Martinez and Rodriguez as well."

The robbery and assault will not be investigated as a hate crime: "Some in the gay community think Whitehead was intentionally targeted for his sexual orientation, but police spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino said detectives found no evidence of a hate crime, because no witnesses reported hearing derogatory slurs during the incident. Deb Browning, organizer of the local PrideFest, has her doubts and questioned why Whitehead was beaten so severely. 'If it was just a normal robbery, you don't see that,' she said. Browning speculated the attack occurred because the assailants considered Whitehead an easy target."

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An anti-gay art controversy has erupted in San Antonio, Texas, fueled by a MySpace campaign intended to get the word out about the rejection of a gay photographer's work by a local bar owner.

On the first Friday of every month, San Antonio bar Joe Blues hosts a guest-curated showing of a local artist, but the San Antonio Express News reports that when he saw photographs that were hanging for the show by Marc Arevalo, which featured the photographer's boyfriend dressed in Victorian garb and wearing make-up (pictured here), he ordered them taken down.

Said Arevalo: "He just said they looked too much like drag queens, and he didn't want to attract that type of clientele to the establishment. Of course, right then and there, I felt really offended."

Joe Blues owner Joey Villareal denies he's homophobic. He tells the Express News: "That's wrong. Flat wrong. A lot of my friends are gay. Sexual preference is not an issue with me. The impression you would get is that we cater specifically to guys who like guys, so I said, 'I can't have this.' I could see easily this offending people and it could cause a ruckus. First impressions are everything. You come in and you see art that suggests it caters to a different crowd, you may not come back."

Too gay for Joe Blue's? [san antonio current]